A rip in time and space
by OnceUponAShip
Summary: After the end of time, the doctor's regeneration doesn't go as planned and he ends up in 1953 with the master's second regeneration. Coincidentally he happens to know another time lord who was in London in 1953, accompanied by a certain blonde companion he thought he'd never see again. Fem!Doctor, Ainsley!Master


"I don't want to go." The Doctor cried out, a sudden realization in the midst of pain. He wanted to stay with Rose, and Donna, and Martha and relive all his old adventures. Anything but this ending, alone, like he had been at the beginning. Oh he'd met so many since then.

Groaning as a pulse of regeneration energy shot through him like lightning, he made his choice.

Hitting a few switches and pulling a few levers he pet the dashboard consolingly.

"C'mon girl, death's just one more adventure, right? Take me somewhere to start it off."

He knew, in the back of his mind that he'd gone through this transformation nearly 11 times before, but he was always different afterwards. He knew Rose's doctor would be forever gone when the golden light completely enveloped his body.

A whirring sounded and the familiar rattling encompassed his TARDIS, and he was off. Unable to keep his grip the dashboard, he flew backwards and knocked into the side railing, spurring the TARDIS into an uncontrollable state. The radiation was still burning at him, and he grasped at the railing, trying to stand and stop his TARDIS from crashing, but it seemed an impossible task as the TARDIS landed with a shuddering halt and more than one explosion.

Knocked back once more, the doctor merely rolled onto his back, regeneration energy flooding through his body, but still he fought it. He didn't know why, but every cell in his body was telling him to fight it. The TARDIS had taken him somewhere familiar, very familiar. With the very last of his strength The Doctor pulled himself up and made a mad dash towards the door. Pushing through it and flinging forwards. Instead of falling straight ahead though, the unexpected happened: He ran face first into someone's chest. A strong hand gripped his shoulder and kept him from falling.

With sluggish limbs he gazed upwards to see who the TARDIS had brought him too and inhaled a quick, painful breath.

"Master." He was there. Black slicked hair, and goatee with the matching black outfit. One of the Master's first regenerations.

"That's impossible, you can't be real. The timelock… It should have.. And you wouldn't regenerate.." He couldn't get that image of his generations master out of his head, of that sudden stillness from a man who almost never stopped moving.

"Doctor? Is that you? A new face again. My, my you must have just regenerated with all the regeneration energy I can sense." The master held him up appraisingly.

"Not to shabby a body if I do say so myself, still not ginger tho-" A shock of regeneration energy blasted through him again, making him fall to his knees despite the Master's solid grip on his arms.

"My god, you're dying." The master dropped down next to his longtime rival, trying to hold the writhing man still.

"Regenerate you fool!" The Master cried out. The Doctor was fighting this regeneration with everything he had. He barked out a painful laugh.

"J-just a l-little while ago I was in your shoes, Master...I don't wanna go." His hand gripped onto the Master's velvet tightly as the regeneration energy won through, shooting through him with a vengeance.

The scream that followed was one the Master hoped he'd never hear again.

Shielding his eyes from the blinding light, he was startled into looking again when the screaming became higher in pitch and definitely not Doctor-like. Sprawled before him was a woman with dark brown hair and pale skin. She was thin, much like the previous regeneration, and her nose was small and button like.

Bright blue eyes popped open and The Doctor inhaled hard, taking in her first breaths as her 11th regeneration.

"You're alive. How are you alive? How am I here? Are the other time lords here as well, please say they are!" Despite the dire situation just moments before, she was on her feet and sputtering out questions a mile a minute.

"I'm alive, Doctor? I believe I'm the one who should be asking you that. What regeneration was that, I've never seen it before? I just saw you yesterday and you're usually smart enough to meet me in order." The Master helped her up off the ground and she stood on wobbly legs. Nearly tripping over the now too long coat. In fact all her previous clothes was too big for her now, she'd have to go search the TARDIS for a change...The TARDIS! Whipping around she leaped through the doors in search of her auto-sprinkler system to put out the fires she had caused in the crash. Which would probably make it a manual sprinkler then, she mused, flipping the switch harshly. Drawing a hand through her hair as the sprinklers soaked though it.

"Doctor, I expect an answer." The Master stood in the doorway looking as malevolent as always, although less insane than Prime Minister Master had been, the Doctor was happy to note.

"And so do I, guess who's gonna get one fir-" The Doctor paused, her hand which at the time was trying comb through her hair, stopping mid stroke.

"Why is my hair so long? And my voice, Rassilon, what is wrong with my voice!" Hyperactive as always the Doctor still couldn't seem to keep his attention focused.

"I'm not a girl, am I? Not that it'd be a bad thing, I just…" The Doctor looked down at her shirt and looked up again, flushing red. Definitely a girl, then.

The sprinkler systems deactivated and the doctor turned towards an opening in the wall that the master could have sworn hadn't been there before.

"I'll be back in five minutes, we'll talk then." She started to walk off, but not before she heard the Master mutter "Five minutes? You're a woman now, it's going to take you at least an hour." The Doctor decided to let that one go, considering that the oncoming conversation was not likely to be pretty anyway.

The Doctor returned dressed in a white blouse and black pants.

"That's a bit simple for you, don't you think Doctor?" The Master commented as soon as The Doctor made it back to the front of the TARDIS. He had already begun setting up the TARDIS' self-repair modules, for which the Doctor was glad.

"Nah, this time, I think simple's the way to go. Although I did want to go out with a bang…" The Master looked over in alarm.

"Out with a bang? This is your last regeneration?" The Doctor nodded solemnly.

"Which regeneration of mine did you see last then? It was either my 4th or 5th seeing as you're well, you."

The Master scoffed.

"Just left your 5th at Castrovalva actually."

"Oooh, Castrovalva, I remember that, well sort of, I was a bit incapacitated at the time. My second best looking regeneration, five was. My 10th being numero uno." The Master glanced at the Doctors current body appraisingly and the Doctor flushed.

"Eye's to yourself chinboy. Now tell me, are the timelords alright?" The doctor turned back to the TARDIS operating panel and started up some more repairs.

"They're still annoying and intrusive as always if that's what you mean." When the doctor unexpectedly let out a sob instead of a muffled chuckle, the Master spun back around.

"What on Gallifrey.." The Doctor dropped to her knees in relief. Alive. The time lords were alive, and un-timelocked. She didn't know how it could be possible.

"Am I dead? Did I die and this is my heaven?" She asked out of the blue. Looking up at the Master like he had the answers she was searching for.

"What kind of heaven would have all the time lords in it?" Or me, he thought.

"The best kind." She choked jumping up. Rushing over she engulfed him into a hug. He froze, and the Doctor seemed to realize what she'd done.

"Err- sorry, I forgot you're past you, although future you wasn't too happy about the hugging either. Actually you kinda died last time I hugged you. Don't die this time, OK?"

The master stepped back, a frown marring his face.

"Doctor, I don't know what's going on with you, but I think it best that you go back to wherever you've been. You know as well as I what this could do to the time streams!"

The Doctor scoffed.

"Time streams? I'm the timelord victorious, and believe me, I plan on messing up the time streams."

"'Time lord victorious' what are you, fifty? Everyone has to follow the time rules!" The Doctor raised a brow at him.

"Alright, most everyone has to follow the rules."

"The drums still beating, Master?" He stopped, eyes widening as he looked at the doctor.

"I can make them stop. It's real, it's a signal. Something bad is going to happen to the Time Lords, and Rassilon, he's going to do whatever he can to cling to life."

Understanding flew across the Master's face.

"Rassilon. Of course, who else."

"Before I can help though, I need to know where we are, or rather when we are."

"Earth, London. June 1st, 1953." The Doctor made a face and turned back around, mumbling something under her breath about Women's rights and appropriate clothing.

"I'll get dressed and find the motorcycle. We're going to have a looksee around." She announced, galloping off.

"I wish I knew why this date sounded so familiar though…" Shrugging she continued down the hallway.

The Master sighed and walked out of the TARDIS to his own which coincidentally was only a few feet away, he fought the urge to comment on how she'd only been female for ten minutes and had already changed clothes twice. He dressed in a sharp black suit and made his way back to the Doctor. She was standing there in front of the blue phone box dressed in some sort of skirt-dress with a pink headband holding her hair back. He wasn't too sure if it was a skirt and a short top or a pink dress. Either way, she was wearing a jean jacket over it so there's no way he was asking her what was under it.

"Ready to head out, Master?"

"Just as soon as you tell me what in the world you're wearing." The Doctor looked affronted at this.

"We're in the 50's. This is hip ya' know."

"You and your humans Doctor. You know I took the Silurian dance and literature instead of your silly little human class."

"It's not silly, I happen to find humans quite fascinating." She was pouting now, her lower lip pushed forward almost comically. Turning around she jumped back into the TARDIS, popping back out a few seconds later with a pair of pink sunglasses.

"There we go." She announced placing them on the bridge of her nose.

"Now I really look like I'm from the 50's!"

"You look like you're from somewhere all right." The Master muttered as he turned towards the 'motorcycle' The Doctor had ridden out to the side of the TARDIS.

"Oi I heard that! Now you're going to drive us, I'm wearing heels." Crossing her arms she headed to the 'motorcycle' which was really just a blue mopad.

"You don't actually expect me to be seen riding around on _that_." The Master pointed a firm finger at the contraption the Doctor was walking towards, she just laughed, a sound that left the Master blindsided for a moment. 'Why am I acting so friendly with the Doctor? Why is she acting so… non-doctory?' The Master thought observing the woman who was acting like they were still attending the academy together.

"Well, c'mon then!"

Begrudgingly the master sat in front of her and started it up. It would have been uncomfortable by himself, but having the Doctor smooshed up against him doubled that.

"Could you scoot back a little!"

"Oh yes, let me just scoot back, in fact why don't I just scoot back all the way and take a nice comfy seat on the concrete?" The Doctor and the Master had only been on the road for five minutes and it was clear that not much had changed from their usual relationship, minus the actually talking part, and the master hadn't even talked about taking over Earth once this whole-

"What a marvelous idea Doctor! When I finally take over this useless planet, these 'motorcycles' will be the first to go." The doctor kicked him in the side with her heels, the action startling the master enough to veer onto the next street and right into another mopad. Thank god they were only going 20. Both vehicles tipped onto their side, the other moped riders had seen the crash coming a few seconds ahead and had enough time to push away from the moped and roll to the ground, the master and the doctor weren't as lucky. They both landed a few feet away from the moped, taking the full brunt of the road.

"Well, how nice of you to take a seat on the concrete for me, Doctor." The Master gritted out as he stood, brushing the dirt off his previous impeccable suit.

"Well _excuse_ me, princess, you're the one who crashed us, why weren't you paying attention to the road you-"

"Because you kicked me you celery eating son of a silurian!"

The Doctor's gaze steeled and she opened her mouth to retort, but a clearing throat stopped her.

"Oh my god we hit someone, I'm so sorry!-" Her mouth halted as she finally turned to look at the couple from the other bike.

"Rose." She whispered as her eyes fell upon her former companion, dressed in the exact same outfit she was. Now she remembered why she had it in the first place, why this time seemed so familiar.

"June 1st, 1953. The queen's inauguration. Oh how could I forget?"

"How do you know my name!" Rose exclaimed, looking up to her doctor to see if he recognized this mysterious girl. Ten just shrugged looking just as confused until the Master decided to move towards Eleven.

"Master!" Ten shouted, pulling Rose behind him protectively.

"No, no it's fine, he's just-"

"You don't understand who this is, he's evil! I don't even know how he's here, but I know it can't be good." Ten's gaze sharpened as he examined how close the pair were standing.

"Getting friendly with humans now, Master?" He mocked, and Eleven bristled.

"Human? You better respect your elders! My goodness was I this rude before? It's only been a short while since now!"

"'Your elders'? I'm time lord victorious, you wanna talk about elders then let's go." The blatant challenge to his authority seemed to take a massive blow to his ego. Eleven was about to step up and shove her heel somewhere the sun doesn't, when the Master stepped between them an odd look on his face and mouthing 'time lord victorious' to his new doctor with a raised eyebrow, she blushed.

"Now, now my dear doctors, if you're going to fight with yourself, do it internally." Ten looked flabbergasted.

"Fight with myself? You're a future regeneration? You're a girl? You're not ginger?" Just like with his newest regeneration the rapid fire of questions seemed to be well up to speed.

"I know, I was upset about the ginger thing too, but there's always hair dye. The imperial salon on the dwarf moon 5 was always good." Even as she spoke she knew that her previous self hadn't even thought of getting his hair cut by professionals in a long, long while. Rose had been cutting his hair for him.

"Wait a minute I'm getting off topic. The time lords. If this master is back then it must mean that the time lock is lifted for some reason or another, as much as I'd like to believe it, and as much as I'd like to believe the master, we have to figure this out."

Ten nodded and Rose did as well, but with only a semblance of understanding. She didn't understand who this Master fellow was, but he had to be another time lord, and she knew he couldn't be a good one with the way the Doctor was going on about him.

Thoughts of the doctor had Rose knitting her eyebrows as she looked around. If this new woman was the doctor's regeneration and the doctor had mentioned one day that he only had 11 regenerations and he was on 10 right now…

"Where am I at?"


End file.
